He King of England, and of the Earl of Poitou, the earl gave him the
abbacy of St. John's minster of Angeli. Afterwards, through his great
craft, he obtained the archbishopric of Besancon; and had it in hand
three days; after which he justly lost it, because he had before
unjustly obtained it. Afterwards he procured the bishopric of Saintes;
which was five miles from his abbey. That he had full-nigh a week (156)
in hand; but the Abbot of Clugny brought him thence, as he before did
from Besancon. Then he bethought him, that, if he could be fast-rooted
in England, he might have all his will. Wherefore he besought the king,
and said unto him, that he was an old man--a man completely broken--that
he could not brook the great injustice and the great hostility that were
in their land: and then, by his own endearours, and by those of all his
friends, he earnestly and expressly entreated for the abbacy of
Peterborough. And the king procured it for him, because he was his
relation, and because he was the principal person to make oath and bear
witness when the son of the Earl of Normandy and the daughter of the
Earl of Anjou were divorced on the plea of consanguinity. Thus
wretchedly was the abbacy given away, betwixt Christmas and Candlemas,
at London; and so he went with the King to Winchester, and thence he
came to Peterborough, and there he dwelt (157) right so as a drone doth
in a hive. For as the drone fretteth and draggeth fromward all that the
bees drag toward [the hive], so did he.--All that he might take, within
and without, of learned and lewd, so sent he over sea; and no good did
there--no good left there. Think no man unworthily that we say not the
truth; for it was fully known over all the land: that, as soon as he
came thither, which was on the Sunday when men sing "Exurge quare o
D---- etc." immediately after, several persons saw and heard many
huntsmen hunting. The hunters were swarthy, and huge, and ugly
